As you sweep up the majestic boulevard to Stormont, you can't miss him. Sir
Edward Carson, unionist leader and opponent of the suffragettes – they once
demanded his arrest – towers in black at the top of the hill. His fist is
raised in mid-air as if to warn any unruly women who might pass below.
This week, 18 women politicians – of various degrees of unruliness – will do
just that when the Assembly is recalled. They might account for only 17% of
its members but, for Northern Ireland, that's almost revolutionary. Only
three women sat in a previous Assembly 20 years ago.
Yet how much has really changed? If Stormont is nowadays more hospitable to
Catholics, is it still a coldhouse for women? "It has the aura of an old,
grey, middle-aged unionist man's place," says Sinn Féin Assembly member,
Michelle Gildernew.
"The constant heckling of women speakers from the unionist benches in the
last Assembly was disgraceful. There was a sliding scale: female Sinn Féin
members got it worse; the SDLP's Brid Rodgers came next because she spoke
Irish; then came the Women's Coalition.
"Sinn Féin's Mary Nelis was told to shut up and go back to the kitchen. 'Why
are there only ugly women in Sinn Féin?' the DUP's Paul Berry shouted at
myself and colleague Sue Ramsey.
"I hope this behaviour will stop but some of the worst offenders are still
in the Assembly. It's lucky that years of abuse from the police and British
Army mean Sinn Féin women have thick skins." Gildernew was disappointed by
female unionists: "Some joined in the heckling. I'd naively thought that,
despite our political differences, there'd be an element of sisterly
solidarity."
The new Assembly speaker, former Alliance deputy leader, Eileen Bell, says
she won't tolerate sexism in the chamber. "I'm a tough old bird, you need to
be in politics here. I saw what happened Sinn Féin and Women's Coalition
speakers and I won't allow a repeat.
"There was a feeling at Stormont that women were to be seen but not heard.
Even when women weren't heckled, you could see men switching off when we
began to speak."
Bell tried to start a female caucus: "I thought if we could get together
like they do in the Dail and Westminster, we could improve things. But some
unionist women wouldn't sit down with Sinn Féin so it never formally got off
the ground."
SDLP Assembly member Patricia Lewsley hopes a women's caucus might be
possible this time. She points out that no Stormont committee chairperson was female and she was
the only woman on the all important 13-member finance and personnel
committee.
"British government ministers are shocked at the gender make-up of local
political delegations," she says. There have been some improvements though.
Michelle Gildernew laughs that they needed to build toilets at Stormont for
the female members – "though you have to walk about three miles to get to
them" – and a mother-and-baby room she requested when she became pregnant.
New DUP Assembly member Norah Beare was an Ulster Unionist secretary for 35
years before she entered electoral politics. "Northern Ireland women had
left politics to men for too long. I thought of the suffragettes, and what
they sacrificed, and decided to take a stand.
"It's very hard for middle-aged women entering politics compared to the
young, high-flying female graduates. We struggle to be noticed. But I can't
wait to take my Assembly seat. I get butterflies in my tummy even driving
through the gates of Stormont. I think, 'go get it girl, you're here!'"
Beare says her past personal life makes challenges she faces as a female
politician seem trivial: "I separated from my husband shortly after becoming
pregnant at the age of 42. The baby was a blessing.
"One afternoon, when he was 13 months, Matthew was in his high chair in the
kitchen while I vacuumed the living-room. I was only away a few minutes. The
edge of his nappy caught the bolt of the chair. He fell face-down on the
seat and suffocated.
"My heart was literally broken. When you've experienced that pain it puts
everything else into perspective." Beare's friends worried she would commit
suicide. She is open about how she became an alcoholic, downing a bottle and
a half of gin a day.
Two years after her son's death, Beare had another chance at happiness when
she met her second husband, William, also a recovering alcoholic. They were
married only six months when he died of cancer.
"I hope my experience makes me more approachable than some other
politicians. I'm very keen to work with people from both communities on
issues like cot deaths, alcoholism, suicide and domestic violence.
"I remember ending up in the Felons' Club on the Falls Road. I was trying to
help a friend stay off drink and that's where she was. I got her out and
then had to convince the manager of a west Belfast supermarket not to sell
her alcohol. I thought 'if only these people knew who I was'!"
New SDLP assembly member Dolores Kelly is well prepared for Stormont:
"Unionist politicians are definitely more sexist than nationalist ones. I
won't be letting them away with anything. Women representatives experience
far more personal abuse than their male colleagues.
"Three weeks ago, after making made comments on a loyalist parade, I got an
anonymous phone call denouncing me as 'a dirty, f***ing Fenian bitch'. Mark
Durkan or Alex Attwood might be abused but it would never take that sexually
aggressive form."
As SDLP leader on Craigavon Council, Kelly says some unionists prefer to
deal with more junior SDLP men than with her: "Maybe, they just aren't used
to negotiating with women. We struggle to be accepted as politicians in
wider society too.
"The police came to my house to warn of loyalist attacks on the homes of
nationalist representatives. They wanted to pass on the warning to
'Councillor Kelly'. I was expecting my fourth child when I answered the
door. They asked to speak to my husband. They just couldn't imagine that a
heavily pregnant woman could possibly be a politician."
